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Max Keith
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Keith (pronounced "Kite"), was the head of Coca-Cola GmbH, the major bottler of Coca-Cola during the National Socialist period of German history.
In part 2 of the documentary trilogy, The Cola Conquest, it is stated that the Nazi headquarters were one of Keith's "prime" customers. Arising from this, one of his competitors got Coca-Cola bottle caps from New York which had kosher signs on them, and so had anti-semitic cards printed up which declared that Coca-Cola was a Jewish-American drink owned by a Jew called Harold Hersch and so it was an un-Nazi beverage. Hersch was on the board of the company and Keith urged the chairman Robert Woodruff to remove him, but Woodruff refused.
Coca-Cola GmbH was unable to obtain Coca-Cola syrup during World War II, because of the Allied blockade. To keep the plant in operation, Keith came up with a fruit flavored drink made from apple fiber, left over from cider pressings, and whey, a byproduct from cheese manufacture, creating Fanta.
Keith was investigated after the war, and it was discovered that he had refused to join the Nazi Party, despite pressure to do so. Keith turned the Fanta profits over to Coca Cola after the war.
Snopes article on the origins of Fanta
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